Archive for Howard Dean

We all get grrrreat liberal email, amidst the junk, but it's especially exciting when something new about our amazing Elizabeth Warren, the Senator from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is waiting to be opened.

This morning it was Howard Dean in tandem, a good pairing for progressives. The active and admirable group, Democracy for America, is turning ten.

Hi Sherry -- I just wanted to make sure you had a chance to read the inspiring email that Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote to DFA members below. I'm so thrilled with what we've built together over the last 10 years. With your critical support now, we can super-charge our people-powered legacy and elect more "Elizabeth Warren Democrats" to Congress -- the kind of leaders who will take our country back from the banks and billionaires.
- Howard

DFA has perhaps not embraced the absolute most progressive candidate for every round of their online grassroots inspired 'Dean Dozen' ... but they've come mightily close and have helped elect 801 Dems besides Elizabeth Warren who would collectively and individually freak the be-jeebus out of Sarah Palin and her Lipton Brigadiers.

An arugula munching crowd that in toto would send Rush Limpbaugh dashing for enough manufactured hysteria to keep him in leather ass-less chaps for years. [Long running Free Range joke, The Rushbot has a purported fondness for frolicking in asslesss leather chaps while high. 😉 ]

Warren's own message was typically optimistic and energizing.

DFA fought shoulder-to-shoulder with me to defeat Scott Brown in 2012, but that's not the only way they've had my back. Over the past year, they've made my fight for the middle class their fight -- and they have doubled down on leveling the playing field for working Americans, fighting with energy and passion.

When I introduced my very first bill, the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act,more than 50,000 DFA members signed a petition supporting it. Together, we fought back against cuts to Social Security, helping President Obama decide to drop "chained CPI" from his budget completely.

For sheer enjoyment, plus the splendid edification(!)some great audio of Warren from a recent discussion of where the middle class is headed in the Twenty Teens … 'to hell in a highly gussied hand basket' would be the Jeopardy answer. The Young Turks get the sincere tip of the hat, for Roaring Warren!

Cantor’s loss has largely been attributed to his failure to retain the support of a GOP grass-roots base that opposes everything from gun-violence prevention to comprehensive immigration reform. That was bad news for Cantor, but it is even worse news for the GOP nationally. The Republican base is driving the party toward a political agenda that makes its candidates increasingly unelectable for national and statewide offices.

This dynamic stands in stark contrast to the one between Democrats and their progressive grass-roots base, which pushes the party to embrace policy ideas that enjoy broad popular support.

Lastly, and perhaps most important, Democrats need to learn from Cantor’s loss that anything can happen in 2014. Even on the morning of the election, not a single major pundit or politician thought the majority leader would lose. Cantor was considered invincible, and Republicans were expected to win big in November. But voters have minds of their own and the tea party’s right-wing base helped it usher in a truly unexpected result.

To round out the day, former Governor Dean visited The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell [as regular watchers know, the program has been ably stewarded by the young and astute Ari Melber while L'O'D recuperates from a taxi crash in Cuba] last night and offered his points directly to the People.

Dean has it dead right. All politics truly is local. The ground game is what wins wars.

Which makes every vote matter at home and across the country for your fellow citizens.

Generally when you have stomach distress, there are some warning signs. You'll feel everything from uneasiness. Stomach grumbling. Pains and the occasional musical accompaniment, often followed by the shouts of "Who cut the cheese?" or "he who smelt it, dealt it."

This past weekend, I experienced a similar set of symptoms, but it wasn't because of something I ate. It was something I heard. And no, it wasn't mass hysteria from crazy Uncle Bill asking my cousin to "pull my finger." I was too busy rushing to open a window, hoping to let the stench out of the room. CNN was on polluting the airwaves.

It was this conversation with Candy Crowley and Rafael Cruz, America's favorite Canuck.

How could one person be so totally out of touch with reality? And when did Candy develop instant laryngitis to not call out the senator on his totally outrageous claims? Your guess is as good as mine. Surely, any similarity to real life as told by Cruz is purely coincidental. Former Governor Dean was right, “God help us if he ever becomes anything more than a senator from Texas.”